At the outset, a funeral unfolds in a broad suburban cemetery, where mourners gather around a casket as a eulogist speaks. An older couple, presumed to be the deceased’s parents, stand close, with the grief-stricken father weeping openly while the mother offers quiet comfort. The scene establishes a mood of restrained sorrow that threads through the rest of the story.
The film then shifts to a car speeding through a city street. Inside is Richie Werner, a 17-year-old whose life has already begun to tilt toward danger as he uses drugs with his friends. The driver, Brick, is pulled over by a police officer who offers him a passed-for-favor deal, a moment that foreshadows the volatile give-and-take between authority, risk, and family loyalties.
What follows is a long arc of episodes that drag Richie into closer conflict with his father, a stern but deeply loving man. The relationship is tested as Richie's drug habit deepens, while his mother Carol Werner remains a steady, if overwhelmed, source of warmth, and his younger brother Russell Werner watches with protective concern. Despite the tension, there are glimmers of possible harmony: Richie lands a job, briefly holds it together, and his father even helps him pursue a relationship with Sheila, a girl at school. Yet these small wins are overshadowed by social pressures and the pull of addiction, driving Richie's behavior into more dangerous and unpredictable territory. Family counseling is offered, but the father resists participating, clinging to the notion that toughness is the only path forward.
As the crisis intensifies, the father takes a drastic step in a desperate bid to save his son, going to the police with information about Richie's activities. Richie, in a drug-fueled rage, confronts his father with an awl, and the father retreats to the basement, where he retrieves a revolver from his toolbox and trains the weapon on his son, signaling that there will be no easy resolution. The anguish escalates as Richie advances with a chilling taunt, daring his father to shoot. The father ultimately shoots, and a staggering moment of cinema folds the act into memory: the blinding flash from the gun’s muzzle morphs into a bouquet of flowers resting on the mahogany casket from the opening scene, a surreal reversal that links the two endings.
The service resumes in a strange stillness as Psalm 23 is spoken and Sheila delivers a brief eulogy, grounding the tragedy in a final, mournful ritual. The film closes with a stark epilogue over a still shot of the father placing a rose on Richie's casket, noting that a grand jury unanimously declined to indict him for his son’s death and that he lives now as a free man.
